ZOROASTER. 



of Afia, on a part of mount Taurus, called Nicephates, where 

 the Tigris opened a fubterranean paffage, N.W. of Amida. 

 ZOROASTER, Zerdusht, or Zardusht, in Bio- 

 'iijpby, an eminent Ealtern philofopher, concerning whom, 

 as well as the age in which he lived, learned writers have en- 

 tertained very different opinions. Some have afcribed this 

 title, the derivation of which is uncertain, to many eminent 

 perfons ; whilll others have maintained that there was but 

 one Zoroafter, and that he was a Perfian. Others have 

 faid that there were fix celebrated founders of philofophy 

 of this name. Ham, the fon of Noah, Mofes, Ofiris, 

 Mithras, and others, both gods and men, have by different 

 writers been afferted to have been the fame with Zoroaf- 

 ter. Many different opinions have been alio advanced con- 

 cerning the time in which he flourilhed. Arillotle and 

 Pliny fix liis date at fo remote a period as 6000 years before 

 the death of Plato : Hermippus fays, that he lived 5000 

 years before the Trojan war ; but thefe are idle tales, which 

 Ihould, without doubt, be claffed with the report of the 

 Chaldxans, concerning the antiquity of their ailronomical ob- 

 fervations. A.ccording to Laertius, he flouridied 600 years 

 before the Trojan war ; according to Suidas 500. We (hall 

 in the fequel of this article detail the opinions of fome of 

 our principal modern writers on this fubjeft. According 

 to Brucker, the moft probable hypothefis is, that there was 

 a Zoroaller, a Perfo-Median, who flourilhed about the time 

 of Darius Hyifafpes, and that befides him there was an- 

 other Zoroaller, who lived in a much more remote period 

 among the Babylonians, and taught them ailronomy. The 

 Greeks and Arabians are agreed concerning the exiffence 

 of the Perfian Zoroaller ; and the ancients unanimoufly 

 afcribe to a philofopher, whom they call Zoroafter, the ori- 

 gin of the Chaldi-an ailronomy, which is certainly of much 

 earlier date than the time of Hyftafpes ; fo that it feems 

 neceffary to fuppofe a Chaldxau Zoroafter diftinft from 

 the Perfian. Concerning this Zoroafter, however, nothing 

 more is known, than that he flourilhed towards the begin- 

 ning of the Babylonifti empire, and was the father of the 

 Chaldsean aftrology and magic. (See ChaldjEAN Philo- 

 fophy and Magi. ) All the writings which have been afcribed 

 to the Chaldseau Zoroafter are unqueftionably fpurious. 

 The Perfian Zoroafter was probably of Perfian extraction, 

 and born in Media. Although much of what has been 

 related concerning this Zoroafter or Zerduflit, and the in- 

 ftruftion which he received from the Jews, is fabulous ; ne- 

 verthelefs it is not improbable that he might have learned 

 fome things from the Ifraelites who refided in Babylon, that 

 might enable him to correft the doftrine of the Perfian 

 magi ; but it is not eafy to fpecify particulars. Several 

 miracles are afcribed to Zoroafter, but they are of fuch a 

 kind as an impoftor would not find it very difficult to per- 

 form. (See Magi.) To Zerdufiit, or the Perfian Zoro- 

 after, many writings are afcribed; particularly the Zend. 

 (See Zendavesta.) Fragments of a work, entitled 

 " The Oracles of Zoroafter," are ftill extant. Several edi- 

 tions of them under the form of verfes have been publiftied, 

 and pains have been taken to explain them. Stanley has 

 fubjoined to his " Lives of the Philofophers" a correal 

 tranflation of them. The philofophers of the Alexandrian 

 fchool highly venerate them as genuine remains of Chal- 

 daian wifdom : but they have fo many evidences in their 

 ideas and language of their origin in that fchool, as to 

 render it probable that they were written by fome Plato- 

 njft, about the beginning of the fecond century ; a period 

 in which fpurious writings were produced in order to fup- 

 port the finking credit of Gentile philofophy. 



The learned Dr. Hyde, and after him Dr. Prideaux and 

 feveral others, are of opinion, that Zoroafter was the fame 

 with the Zerdufiit of the Perfians, who was a great pa- 

 triarch of the Magians, and that he lived between the be- 

 ginning of the reign of Cyrus, and the latter end of that 

 of Darius Hyftafpes. 



Dr. Warburton (Legation, vol. ii. parti, p. 8.) cenfures 

 Hyde and Prideaux for making an early Baftrian law-giver 

 to be a late Perfian falfe prophet, and fays this whole ftory 

 of him is mere fable, contradifting all learned antiquity, 

 and fupported only by the romantic relations of later Per- 

 fian writers under the caliphs. 



Dr. Baumgarten likewife (Anc. Un. Hift. Suppl. vol. ii. 

 p. 365, &c.) reprefents it as doubtful, whether the Perfian 

 Zoroafter ever exifted, calls in queftion the credibility of 

 the oriental writers who give his hiftory, and makes the 

 whole to be a forgery in later times by the fire-worftiippers 

 of Perfia. 



The learned Mr. Bryant (Anal. Anc. Mythol. vol. ii. 

 p. 107.) obferves, that there are more perfons than one 

 fpoken of under the chara&er of Zoroafter ; though there 

 was one principal to whom it more truly related. Of 

 men, ftyled Zoroafter, he fays, the firft was a deified per- 

 fonage, reverenced by fome of his pofterity, whofe worlhip 

 was called Magia, and the profeffors of it Magi. This 

 worfhip was tranfmitted from the ancient Babylonians and 

 Chaldeans to the Perfians, who, fucceeding to the fove- 

 reignty of Afia, renewed under their princes, and particu- 

 larly under Darius, the fon of Hyftafpes, thofe rites which 

 had been in a great degree effaced and forgotten. The 

 Perfians, fays this learned writer, originally derived their 

 name from the deity Perez, or Parez, the fun ; whom they 

 alfo worftiipped under the title of Zor-After. On occafion 

 of the diftrefs to which they were reduced upon the death 

 of their laft king Yefdegerd, they retired into Gedrofia and 

 India, where people of the fame family had for ages refided, 

 and carried with them fome fiiattered memorials of their re- 

 ligion in writing, whence the Sadder, Shaller, Vedam, and 

 Zendavefta, were compiled ; and upon thefe the religion of 

 the Brahmins and Perfees is founded. The perfon who is 

 fuppofed to have firft formed a code of inftitutes for this 

 people is faid to have been one of the Magi, named Zer- 

 dufiit ; the fame, as Hyde and others fuppofe, both in cha- 

 racter and name, with Zoroafter : but Mr. Bryant difcovers 

 no refemblance between them. There were, indeed, many 

 perfons of this name in different parts of the world, who 

 were magi or priefts, and denominated from the rites of 

 Zoroafter, which they followed. We read of an Affyrian, 

 Medo-Perfian, Proconnefian, Baftrian, Pamphylian, Chi- 

 nefe, &c. Zoroafter, fuppofed by Dr. Hyde to have been 

 one and the fame. But Mr. Bryant thinks that their re- 

 fpeftive hiftories furnifh evidence fufficient of their beinor 

 different perfons ; and befides, there feems to have been one 

 perfon more ancient and celebrated than the reft. As for 

 the Zoroafter or Zerduflit of Hyde, he lived in the reign 

 of Darius, the father of Xerxes, about the time of the 

 battle of Marathon, and confequently not a century before 

 the birth of Eudoxus, Xenophon, and Plato. This Zer- 

 dufiit, who was the renewer of the Sabian rites, could not 

 be the perfon fo much celebrated by the ancients, and re- 

 ferred to the firft ages. Xanthus Lydius makes him above 

 600 years prior to the reign of Darius ; Suidas places him 

 5C0 years before the war of Troy ; Hermodorus Platonicus, 

 Hermippus, and Plutarch, refer him to 5000 years before 

 that era ; Eudoxus fuppofed him to have flourifiied 6000 

 years before the death of Plato ; and Phny places him 



many 



